In the game, players use a slingshot to launch birds at pigs stationed on or within various structures, with the intent of destroying all the pigs on the playfield. As players advance through the game, new birds appear, some with special abilities that can be activated by the player. Rovio Mobile has supported Angry Birds with numerous free updates that add additional game content, and the company has even released stand-alone holiday and promotional versions of the game.

Angry Birds has been praised for its successful combination of addictive gameplay, comical style, and low price. Its popularity led to versions of Angry Birds being created for personal computers and gaming consoles, a market for merchandise featuring its characters and even long-term plans for a feature film or television series. With a combined 500 million downloads across all platforms and including both regular and special editions,[5] the game has been called “one of the most mainstream games out right now”,[6] “one of the great runaway hits of 2010”,[7] and “the largest mobile app success the world has seen so far”.[8]

Contents

Gameplay

A yellow bird collapses a structure onto several pigs.

In Angry Birds, players control a flock of multi-colored birds that are attempting to retrieve eggs that have been taken by a group of hungry green pigs.[9] On each level, the pigs are sheltered by structures made of various materials such as wood, ice[10] and stone, and the objective of the game is to eliminate all the pigs in the level. Using a slingshot, players launch the birds with the intent of either hitting the pigs directly or damaging the structures, causing them to collapse and eliminate the pigs.[11] In various stages of the game, additional objects such as explosive crates and rocks are found in the structures, and may be used in conjunction with the birds to destroy hard-to-reach pigs.

There are several different types of birds used in the game. In the earliest levels, the basic red bird is the only one available.[9] As the player advances through the game, additional types of birds become available with specific birds being effective against particular materials. Some birds have special abilities that may be activated by the player after the bird has been launched.[11] For example, a blue bird can separate into three small birds,[9] a black bird explodes,[11] and a white bird can drop explosive eggs.[9] The pigs themselves also appear in different sizes. While small pigs are relatively weak and are easily destroyed either by direct hits or by debris from the damaged structures, larger pigs are able to sustain more damage. In addition, some pigs wear helmets as armor, making them even more resistant to damage, while pigs with crowns can take the most damage.

Each level starts with the number, types, and order of birds pre-determined.[9][11] If all of the pigs are defeated by the time the last bird is used, the level is completed and the next level is unlocked.[9] Points are scored for each pig defeated as well as for damage to, or destruction of, structures, and bonus points are awarded for any unused birds. Upon completing each level, players receive one, two, or three stars, depending on the score received. Players may re-attempt unlocked levels as many times as they wish in order to complete them successfully or to earn additional points or stars.

Development

In early 2009, Rovio staff began reviewing proposals for potential games. One such proposal came from senior game designer Jaakko Iisalo[12] in the form of a simulated screenshot featuring some angry-looking birds with no visible legs or wings.[13] While the picture gave no clue as to what type of game was being played, the staff liked the characters,[13] and the team elected to design a game around them.[14] As the concept of Angry Birds was developed, the staff realized the birds needed an enemy.[12] At the time, the “swine flu” epidemic was in the news, so the staff made the birds’ enemies pigs.[12] The game’s mechanics were inspired by other petraryphysics games that have been released over the years, including another 2009 release, Crush the Castle.[15][16] The initial cost to develop Angry Birds was estimated to exceed €100,000, not including money spent on the subsequent updates.[13] For the iOS version, Rovio partnered with distributor Chillingo to publish the game to the App Store.[17] Since then Rovio has self-published almost all of the later ports of the game, with the exception of the PlayStation Portable version, which was produced under license by Abstraction Games and then distributed by Chillingo.[18]

Prior to this meeting we had set up strict criteria to determine which game we would go with, but we threw that out for the angry bird character.

When Rovio began writing new versions of the game for other devices, new issues came to light. As the team began working on a version for Android systems, they observed the large number of configurations of device types and versions of the Android software.[12] The number of combinations of software version, processor speed and even user interfaces was significantly larger than that for the earlier iOS version.[19] Ultimately, the team settled on a minimum set of requirements,[12] although that left nearly 30 types of Android phones unable to run the game, including some newly released phones.[19] One month after the initial release on Android, Rovio Mobile began designing a simpler version of the game for these other devices.[19]

In early 2010, Rovio began developing a variant of Angry Birds for Facebook.[20] The project became one of the company’s largest, with development taking over a year.[20] The company understood the challenges of transplanting a game concept between social platforms and mobile/gaming systems. In a March 2011 interview, Rovio’s Peter Vesterbacka said, “you can’t take an experience that works in one environment and one ecosystem and force-feed it onto another. It’s like Zynga. They can’t just take FarmVille and throw it on mobile and see what sticks. The titles that have been successful for them on mobile are the ones they’ve built from the ground up for the platform.”[20] The Facebook version is expected to incorporate social-gaming concepts and in-game purchases and was scheduled to enter beta-testing in April 2011.[20]

Future improvements planned for the game include the ability to synchronize the player’s progress across multiple devices; for example, a player who completes a level on an iOS device could log into their copy of the game on an Android device and see the same statistics and level of progress.[21]

Release

The initial iOS version of the game included a single episode entitled “Poached Eggs”, which contained three themed chapters, each with 21 levels. From time to time, Rovio has released free upgrades that include additional content, such as new levels, new in-game objects and even new birds. As updates have been released, they have been incorporated into the game’s full version offered for download from each platform’s application store.[22]

The first update, released in February 2010, added a new episode called “Mighty Hoax”, containing two new chapters with 21 levels each. Updates released in April 2010 added the “Golden Eggs” feature, which placed hidden golden eggs throughout the game that would unlock bonus content when found, and a new episode called “Danger Above”, which initially contained a single chapter of 15 levels. Two later updates added two more chapters to “Danger Above”, each with 15 levels. “The Big Setup” episode, released in June 2010, added a new chapter with 15 levels and additional Golden Egg levels.[23] “The Big Setup” was later given two more chapters of 15 levels each.

A fifth episode, called “Ham ‘Em High”, launched in December 2010, in celebration of the game’s first year in the iOS App Store.[22][24] “Ham ‘Em High” contained 15 Wild West-themed levels in a single chapter;[25] updates in February 2011 and March 2011 each added one new 15-level chapter.[26][27] “Ham ‘Em High” also introduced the Mighty Eagle, a new bird that may be used once per hour to clear any uncompleted levels.[25] The Mighty Eagle can also be used in previously completed levels, without the once-per-hour limit, to play a mini-game called “Total Destruction” in which the player attempts to destroy as much of the scenery as possible, both with the standard birds and the Mighty Eagle; achieving 100% destruction earns the player a Mighty Eagle feather for the level.[25]

The Mighty Eagle is offered as a one-time, in-game purchase,[22] and was initially only available for iOS, as its App Store customers have iTunes accounts with pre-linked credit cards.[28] In late 2011, Rovio also added the Mighty Eagle to the Chrome App version of the game. Rovio has begun testing an Android update called the “Bad Piggy Bank” with the Elisa wireless service in Finland and T-Mobile, which allows users to charge in-app purchases, such as the Mighty Eagle, to their mobile phone bills; the service is expected to become available to other Android users in the second quarter of 2011.[28]

The sixth episode, “Mine and Dine”, was released on June 16, 2011 with 15 new mining-themed levels and a new Golden Egg.[29] An August 2011 update expanded “Mine and Dine” with two more 15-level chapters.[30]

The seventh update, “Birdday Party”, was released on December 11, 2011 to commemorate the second anniversary of the first release of the iOS version into the iTunes App Store.[31] It included 15 new birthday cake-theme levels, as well as updated graphics and the addition of elements from the spin-off games, such as the scoring graphic seen in Angry Birds Rio and the introduction of the orange bird that first appeared in Angry Bird Seasons.[32] The update was later released for Android and Microsoft Windows.

Reviews of Angry Birds have been highly positive. Chris Holt of Macworld called the game “an addictive, clever, and challenging puzzler”,[9] and Pocket Gamer‘s Keith Andrew said Angry Birds is “a nugget of puzzling purity dished out with relish aplenty”.[11] Jonathan Liu of Wired News wrote that “going for the maximum number of stars certainly adds a lot of replay value to a fairly extensive game”.[39]

Reviews for the first versions of the game that did not use a touch-screen, the PlayStation 3/PSP version and the Windows version, have also been positive, but with some disagreement over the different interfaces. Will Greenwald of PC Magazine, in his review of the PlayStation Network version, said that the control scheme on these platforms is good, “but they’re not nearly as satisfying as the touch-screen controls found on smartphone versions”, and that the PlayStation 3 version appeared “blocky and unpleasant, like a smartphone screen blown up to HDTV size”.[40] Conversely, Greg Miller of IGN preferred the analog control setup of the PSP version, saying it “offered me tiny variances in control that I don’t feel like I get with my fat finger on a screen”.[36] While giving the game a positive review, Miller concluded, “There’s no denying that Angry Birds is fun, but it could use polish – such as sharper visuals, a better price and smoother action.”[36] Damien McFerrin of British website Electric Pig reviewed the PC version, saying “the mouse-driven control method showcases many distinct advantages over its finger-focused counterpart”.[41]

Angry Birds became the top-selling paid application on Apple’s UK App Store in February 2010, and reached the top spot on the US App Store a few weeks later,[42] where it remained until October 2010.[43] Since release, the free, limited version of Angry Birds has been downloaded more than 11 million times for Apple’s iOS, and the full-featured paid version has been downloaded nearly 7 million times as of September 2010.[13] The Android version of the game was downloaded more than 1 million times within the first 24 hours of release,[44] even though the site crashed at one point due to the load,[45] and over 2 million downloads in its first weekend.[46] Rovio receives approximately US$1 million per month in revenue from the advertising that appears in the free Android version.[4]

According to Rovio, players log more than 1 million hours of game time each day on the iOS version of the game,[12] 3.33 million hours per day across all platforms[47] and 40 million monthly active users.[48] In November 2010, digitaltrends.com stated that “with 36 million downloads, Angry Birds is one of the most mainstream games out right now”.[6]MSNBC‘s video game news blog has written that “[n]o other game app comes close” to having such a following.[49]The Christian Science Monitor has remarked, “Angry Birds has been one of the great runaway hits of 2010″.[7] In December 2010, in honor of the one-year anniversary of the release of Angry Birds, Rovio Mobile announced that the game had been downloaded 50 million times, with more than 12 million on iOS devices[4] and 10 million on Android.[50] By November 2011, the game had reached 500 million downloads, including Angry Birds, Angry Birds Seasons and Angry Birds Rio.[5] On Christmas Day 2011 alone, 6.5 million copies of the various Angry Birds games were downloaded across all supported platforms.[51]

In the history of the Apple App Store, Angry Birds holds the record for most days at the top of the Paid Apps chart, having spent a total of 275 days at the No.1 position; Angry Birds Rio has been No.1 for a total of 23 days, ranking ninth on the list.[52] In Apple’s “iTunes Rewind” list of the most popular iTunes Store media for 2011, Angry Birds was the top-selling paid iPhone/iPod app on the App Store and its free version was the fourth-most downloaded.[53] The game’s two special-edition versions, Angry Birds Seasons and Angry Birds Rio, were also ranked in the top 10 for paid iPhone/iPod apps, while its iPad-exclusive Angry Birds HD versions were the top-selling and top-downloaded iPad apps for the year.[53]

Awards

In February 2010, Angry Birds was a nominee for the “Best Casual Game” award at the 6th annual International Mobile Gaming Awards in Barcelona, Spain.[54] In September 2010, IGN named Angry Birds as the fourth best iPhone game of all time.[55] In April 2011, Angry Birds won both the “Best Game App” and “App of the Year” at the UK Appy Awards.[56] At the 15th edition of the Webby Awards, Angry Birds was awarded “Best Game for Handheld Devices”.[57] And it is proven to be one of best iPhone game apps on the market as of 2011.[58]

Ports

Since its initial release for the Apple iPhone and iPod Touch, Rovio has released versions of Angry Birds for a number of additional devices. One of the first was for Nokia’s N900 handset,[42] through its Ovi Store. An iPad-exclusive version, Angry Birds HD, was released at the same time the iPad itself was released in April 2010.[59] In August 2010, Angry Birds was made available to the Palm Pre phone running Palm’swebOS operating system through its App Catalog online store.[60] Symbian^3 phones received a version of the game in October 2010,[61] which initially includes only the “Poached Eggs” and “Mighty Hoax” episodes.[62]

In May 2010, Rovio announced plans for a version for devices using Google’s Android operating system,[63] with a beta version being released through the Android Market in September 2010.[64] The full Android version of the game was first released instead on GetJar in October 2010,[43] though it was subsequently released on Android Market within days.[44] Rovio officials noted that GetJar had a more global reach than Android Market, and GetJar’s availability on other smartphone platforms (including Symbian and Windows Phone 7) would make cross-platform promotion of the game easier.[43] Unlike the previous versions, Angry Birds for Android is a free, ad-supported application, as paid applications aren’t available on Android in some nations.[44] An update called “Bad Piggy Bank” enabled players to buy out the in-game ads.[50]

Near the end of 2010, Rovio stated that it was developing new ports of the game, this time for devices outside of the mobile phone market. In January 2011, three of those ports launched. First, Sony announced the release of Angry Birds for its PlayStation Portable handheld system in the form of a PlayStation mini game that includes nearly 200 levels from the original game; the version is also playable on the PlayStation 3.[36][65] Next, Rovio announced the release of a Windows version of the game[66] on January 4, 2011, available for sale exclusively from the Intel AppUp center, which included 195 levels at launch and plans for exclusive features not available on the smartphone versions.[67] One day after the Windows version was released, the Mac App Store launched, with one of the first offerings being its own version of Angry Birds.[68] Ports of Angry Birds are also proposed for the Xbox 360,[4]Wii,[4]Nintendo DS[69] and Nintendo 3DS[70] systems, as is a version for Facebook,[71] which was expected to launch in May 2011.[20]

In October 2010, Microsoft suggested on one of its websites that a Windows Phone 7 version of Angry Birds was in development. Rovio complained that Microsoft had not asked permission to make such a statement, noting that at that time it had not committed to design a Windows Phone version. Although Rovio asked Microsoft to revise its site to remove references to the game,[43][72] a Windows Phone 7 version was ultimately released in June 2011.[73]

The popularity of Angry Birds has helped spread the game to other devices that were not initially designed as gaming machines. Barnes & Noble announced that a future update for its Nook Color e-reader will let the Android-based device run applications, including a port of Angry Birds.[74] In June 2011, Rovio announced plans to partner with Roku to include a version of Angry Birds on a new model of its Internet-connected set-top box, the Roku 2 XS.[75]

In May 2011, an in-browser version of Angry Birds was released in beta form. The game uses WebGL or Canvas and is distributed through the Chrome Web Store for use with Google’s Chrome web browser. It runs on any WebGL- or Canvas-enabled browser, and features exclusive content when played on Chrome, such as exclusive levels[76] and the so-called “Chrome Bombs”. The version includes offline playability and features 60 FPS gameplay with a selection of graphics settings to accommodate a variety of hardware capabilities.[77]

On October 2011, during Nokia World 2011, it was announced that Angry Birds would come preloaded in Nokia’s Asha series of Series 40 touch handsets, aimed at emerging markets such as India, China and South Africa.[78] In December 2011, Rovio released Angry Birds HD, Angry Birds Seasons HD and Angry Birds Rio HD on the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet from Research In Motion.[79] In January 2012, Angry Birds was released for devices using Bada OS.[80]

In October 2010, Rovio released a special Halloween edition of game.[81]Angry Birds Halloween, exclusive to iOS at the time and a separate application from the main game, included new levels with Halloween-themed music and graphics.[81] In December 2010, Rovio released Angry Birds Seasons to iOS, Android and Symbian^3 devices.[82][83]Seasons introduced 25 Christmas-themed levels, one for each day leading to the holiday, similar to an Advent calendar.[82][83] All versions include the previously-exclusive Halloween levels and are offered as separate, stand-alone paid applications, with the exception of the free, ad-supported Android version;[84]Angry Birds Halloween users on iOS received the Seasons levels as a free upgrade.[82] The Halloween version was given the episode title “Trick or Treat”, while the Christmas episode was entitled “Season’s Greedings”. In February 2011, Rovio released a new Valentine’s Day update to Angry Birds Seasons, entitled “Hogs and Kisses”, complete with new themed levels and graphics, as well as the option to send Angry Birds-themed Valentine’s Day messages through Facebook.[85] In March 2011, Rovio released a new St. Patrick’s Day update, entitled “Go Green, Get Lucky”,[86] followed by an Easter update, entitled “Easter Eggs”, in April 2011[87] and a summer update, “Summer Pignic”, in June 2011.[88] In September 2011, “Mooncake Festival” was released in conjunction with the Chinese Mid-Autumn Festival.[89] In October 2011, “Ham’O’Ween” was released and introduced a new orange bird, known as the globe bird.[90] In December 2011, “Wreck the Halls” was released with 25 Christmas-theme levels also arranged in an Advent calendar setting. “Year of the Dragon,” a Chinese New Year-themed update, was released on January 20, 2012 (around midnight China Standard Time or January 19, 4:00 p.m. GMT).[91] The update includes an episode-exclusive Mighty Dragon. Its function is the same as the Mighty Eagle, but it can be used even by iOS users who have not purchased the Mighty Eagle, as well as Android and Symbian^3 users, whose versions do not carry the Mighty Eagle. [92]

Angry Birds Rio

Rovio launched Angry Birds Rio in March 2011.[93] In this version, based on the 20th Century Fox animated film Rio, the Angry Birds characters appear in Rio de Janeiro and interact with characters from the film.[93]Angry Birds Rio initially included two chapters including a warehouse chapter entitled “Smuggler’s Den” and a jungle chapter entitled “Jungle Escape”, but it has been updated with additional chapters and levels including a beach chapter entitled “Beach Volley”, a carnival chapter entitled “Carnival Upheaval”, an airfield chapter entitled “Airfield Chase”, and one more chapter as “Smuggler’s Plane.” Since release, Angry Birds Rio has been downloaded more than 10 million times.[94]

Angry Birds Magic

A special version of the game, called Angry Birds Magic, will be developed exclusively for Nokia‘s NFC-enabled Symbian devices. This version of the game will include functionality that will unlock game levels upon contact with another NFC-enabled phone running the game. A free version of Angry Birds Magic came preinstalled with all NFC Symbian devices to be sold in 2011, starting with the Nokia C7. [95]

Angry Birds and its characters have been featured in advertisements for other products. In March 2011, the characters began appearing in a series of advertisements for Microsoft’s Bing search engine.[106] At the 2011 South by Southwest festival in Austin, Texas, Nokia used scrims on a downtown building to project an advertisement for its new N8 handset that included the game’s characters.[107] A June 2011 T-Mobile advertisement filmed in Barcelona, Spain included a real-life mock-up of the game in a city plaza,[108] while Nokia used the game in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia to promote an attempt to set a world record for the largest number of people playing a single mobile game.[109]Finnair has also used Angry Birds in their advertising, including taping an Airbus A340 airliner with the Angry Birds figures and holding an Angry Birds tournament on board a flight to Singapore. [110]

In September 2011, the Window of the World theme park in Changsha, China opened an unlicensed Angry Birds attraction.[111] Visitors to the park use a large slingshot to launch stuffed versions of the bird characters at green balloons representing the pigs.[111] Upon learning of the attraction, Rovio Mobile was reported to be considering working with the theme park to officially license it.[112]

The game’s popularity has spawned knock-off and parody games that utilize the same basic mechanics as Angry Birds. For example, Angry Turds features monkeys hurling feces and other objects at hunters who have stolen their babies.[113] Another game, entitled Chicks’n’Vixens and released in beta form on Windows Phone 7 devices, replaces the birds and pigs with chickens and foxes, respectively.[114] The developer of Chicks’n’Vixens intended the game as a challenge to Rovio Mobile, which stated at the time that a Windows Phone port of Angry Birds wouldn’t be ready until later in 2011.[114]

Angry Birds has inspired works of religious analogy. A five-part essay entitled “Angry Birds™ Yoga – How to Eliminate the Green Pigs in Your Life” was written by Giridhari Dasa of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (i.e. Hare Krishna) of Brazil, utilizing the characters and gameplay mechanics to explain various concepts of yoga in Gaudiya Vaishnavism as understood and interpreted by the Hare Krishna.[115][116][117][118][119] The piece attracted much media attention, in Brazil and abroad, for its unique method of philosophico-religious presentation.[120][121][122][123] The piece was also recognized and appreciated by Rovio Mobile’s Peter Vesterbacka, who was prompted to comment on Twitter, “Very cool! I can see Angry Birds Yoga becoming a worldwide craze;-)”.[115]

Rovio is investigating ways to expand the Angry Birds brand, including merchandise, television shows and movies.[124] The game’s official website offers plush versions of the birds and pigs for sale, along with T-shirts featuring the game’s logo and characters.[125] In May 2011, Mattel released an Angry Birdsboard game, entitled “Angry Birds: Knock on Wood”.[126] Over 10 million Angry Birds toys have been sold thus far.[127] Rovio opened the first official Angry Birds retail store in Helsinki on November 11, 2011 at 11:11am local time.[112] It expects to open its next retail store somewhere in China, considered the game’s fastest-growing market.[112]

Mikael Hed, CEO of Rovio Mobile, has envisioned a feature film in the stop-motion animation style of Aardman Animation.[124] To that end, Rovio has purchased a Helsinki-based animation studio to prepare Angry Birds short cartoons on Nickelodeon,[127] the first of which was a Christmas special named “Wreck the Halls” that debuted on Nickelodeon in December 2011.[128] Rovio also hired David Maisel, former executive producer of Marvel Studios films such as Iron Man and Thor, to head up production of feature-length films.[127] Hed acknowledges that such a film would be years away, and that Rovio must keep the characters relevant until then, by producing sequels or new ports of the original game.[124] Rovio officials have hinted that one such “sequel” will be told from the pigs’ point of view.[129]

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5 thoughts on “Angry Birds”

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